"Violet, look at that!" Klaus exclaimed, squinting into the sky and shielding his eyes with his hand.
"Now's not the time," she replied sharply.
He smiled over at her. "There couldn't be a better time Violet." Violet lifted her head to look into the sky and she smiled back at Klaus. Sunny turned to smile at Klaus and Violet.
"Baudelaires, I thought we'd never see you again!" Isadora shouted down from the hot air mobile home. "We'll save you from Count Olaf just as you did for us!"
"Actually, we have more pressing matters than Count Olaf at the moment," Klaus shouted up, "as we are about to be eaten by the Lachrymose Leeches"
"Well then," Duncan said, "We'll waste no time!" He tossed down a long rope. Klaus took hold first, and Violet grasped the rope beneath him. Violet used one of her hands to support Sunny up beneath her. "All set?" Duncan asked, and he began to raise the hot air mobile home.
"Wait!" Count Olaf shouted, and he grabbed on the small bit of leftover rope. "You didn't think you could just leave me in this boat to be eaten by leeches, did you? Think of all we've been through together Baudelaires."
Duncan and Isadora began to pull in the rope, inch by inch. "I don't think we can do it!" Isadora gasped after a few minutes more pulling and no progress being made. "It's too heavy! And we don't have much time!" She was right, the leeches were making more progress than Duncan and Isadora were as they jumped higher and higher out of the water trying to reach the rope and then eat their way towards the mobile home.
"Solution," Sunny said, meaning "There is only one solution to this problem". With a look of mixed emotions on her face, she turned down to Count Olaf. "Bye Bye Countie" And she bit the rope beneath her.
"NO," he screamed as he realized what she was doing, but it was too late. He plummeted towards the black waters beneath them, and hit the water with a huge splash. The leeches attacked him with sickening crunching sounds. For all the tragedy Olaf had burdened the Baudelaires with, it was a justified end. He left their lives just as he'd entered; swiftly and unwanted.
Sunny looked up towards her siblings. Her eyes were asking them whether she did the right thing. Violet smiled sadly at her. "It's okay Sunny. It was his lives or ours. He took our parents, he took a good part of our childhood, and he tried many times to take our fortune. We're destined for bigger and better things, so we mustn't dwell on this. It may not have been the right choice, but it was the only choice. The two Quagmires raised the Baudelaires into the hot air mobile home and they all embraced each other. Nobody spoke of what had just happened because they all understood in their own way that it had to be done.
"We are so happy to see you again, and we have wonderful news for you!" Klaus said. "But where is Hector?"
Isadora and Duncan exchanged sad looks. "You see, the thing about that is that….well, Hector died. He was so good to us, and we never even got a chance to thank him. Hector was an old man, and we woke one morning to find him dead in his bed. We couldn't land the mobile home, so to make the situation worse we had to toss him into the sea. I'm sorry to have to tell you this.
"It's better to know" Violet replied.
"On a happier note, what was the news you have for us?" Duncan asked.
"Quigley no die!" Sunny Shouted.
The Quagmires stared at the Baudelaires for some sign of deceit. When they realized it was no joke they were ecstatic. They screamed and danced and hugged and sang and smiled and laughed and screamed some more. "We always had a small flame of hope that he'd survived," Isadora said, tears leaking from her eyes. "But where is he?"
"I'm sorry to say that we lost him where the stricken stream forked and never saw him since". The Quagmires looked at Klaus in confusion. It's a long story he said. But I'm sure we have time to explain. He smiled, and his gaze lingered on Isadora for a second too long. She caught his gaze, and smiled back at him.
"We have a dinner cooking, and I imagine you three must be very hungry. Why don't we go sit down? The 5 of them walked to the table and sat down to a dinner of chicken and rice, and they spent the night and early hours of dawn filling each other in on what had happened since they last saw each other. With their minds full and their eyelids drooping, they each fell into a deep and undisturbed sleep.